I've just had a totally sleepless night... I'm realising just how seriously this situation could damage my business. I've two clients to meet on Monday who will need to pay deposits, and have other clients through the week. How will it look when I tell them I can't accept online payments or cheques? I'll also have to allocate a couple of hours next week to find another bank... but what if I'm turned down? And, if Santander do the same to my personal account I'm totally screwed! My business was on track to burst into 2013 and really fly! Santander may just have pulled the rug from under my feet!

Thanks for the quick reply, BankFodder, and the link to the BBC article. My credit is pretty much squeaky clean and I've still got an active personal account with Santander. In fact, after 16 years of banking with Abbey/Santander I've never once been overdrawn, had to dip into my overdraft or had any problems whatsoever. I'm just gobsmacked by both their actions and their attitude, but I'm not just going to roll over and accept this treatment.

I opened a business account at Santander a few months ago and transferred £3,000 in to it as I needed to to buy stock etc. It's a new business so not talking in huge cash sums here, but even at it's lowest, funds in the account were around £500. The last payment into the account was by a client for £200+ earlier in the week so it would have been just short of £1,000 in credit. Went online to check the exact balance today, but found I was locked out of the account. A call to Santander revealed that they had closed the account. No reason given, just told blankly that I was no longer a customer and a cheque for the balance would be posted to me once authorised. Absolutely fuming about this. I have direct debits due to be paid on Monday and no access to my business finance. Any advice greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.